


Rule of Two

by Rapier_Thirteen



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Drama, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Jedi vs Sith (Star Wars), Male-Female Friendship, Movie: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Original Character(s), Pre-Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Sith (Star Wars), Sith Being Sith (Star Wars), Sith Magic & Rituals (Star Wars), Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27398206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rapier_Thirteen/pseuds/Rapier_Thirteen
Summary: When Darth Callidus is sent to eliminate Black Sun pirates, she is beaten to the kill. Her master suspects a threat to their Rule of Two. Little does he know his apprentice has formed a turbulent alliance with her rival, a fearsome young Sith named Maul. Bent on revenge against the Jedi and their masters, the Rule will be theirs, and so will the galaxy, no matter the cost.
Relationships: Darth Maul & Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a drastic rework of an old story. You get to blame Solo for its resurgence! I'm excited to be writing in one of my favorite eras in Star Wars again, and to be back with some of my favorite characters! Enjoy!

_Chapter 1_

Kriffing suns, she hated Tatooine.

Though the cool shadows inside the Hutt sail barge gave blessed respite from the roiling heat and stinging sands of the Dune Sea, her robes still stuck to her long limbs as she pressed her back to the wall and melted into the shadows. The warm, thick stench of sweat and vomit and spice stung her nose and eyes. Head-splitting party music shook the metal floor beneath her boots, threatening to wreck her concentration as she scanned the boisterous crowd. Drunks, pirates, drug-lords, whores of every species imaginable, woven together in a tight tapestry, gyrating, gambling, fornicating. Thoroughly masking her targets.

She'd relish every second of tearing it to shreds on the way out.

 _Patience, apprentice_. Her master's voice, as clearly as if he were whispering in her ear. _Focus your anger. Let it guide you. The Dark Side will reveal your path._

Pushing aside every distraction, Darth Callidus-she'd only _just_ earned the title-sank into the Dark Side. It avalanched through her system; she strained to bend it to her will. Her eyes burned behind their closed lids; they'd glow yellow once she opened them. One day, she'd be powerful enough that they wouldn't change. She used the pain to sharpen her focus. The voices, the music, the shouts and moans and clinking glasses. The cries of Gardulla's miserable slaves. It all fed her anger, her power, until the Dark Side rolled off of her like leaking gas. Every scent, every sound, every sight, isolated and combed over individually in the Force until-

Pheromones. _Falleen_ pheromones.

She'd found them.

Callidus couldn't keep the victorious smirk off her face as she emerged from her hiding place, following the intoxicating scent out of the main chamber and down a winding hallway until she spotted broad silhouettes with long black braids intricately twisting out of green, sharp-featured heads. Black Sun operatives, pirates who specialized in acquiring and redistributing black-market weapons. For pillaging Master Rabiem's allies in the Trade Federation, these fools would pay. They disappeared behind a set of blast doors, two giggling, scantily-clad Twi'lek women ushering them in.

Drowned out by the party tapestry, no one would hear them scream.

Callidus reached for her lightsaber. Take out the captain first, so he couldn't call the rest of his crew for help. Then his underlings. And then the Twi'leks, just for the fun of it.

The blast doors groaned against the Force as Callidus broke the locks. The Dark Side erupted in the sealed room before her. More prominently than normal. Perhaps she really was getting stronger. The doors slammed open. She charged.

No one opened fire on her. Only the whir of the room's broken air regulation system greeted her as she came in. The captain was either deaf or terribly arrogant; the fool still sprawled unreactive in his chair, his back to her. Callidus sprang across the room, caught his collar in her glove, and yanked his throat back, the red of her lightsaber spilling across his neck as if it were already slit.

Then she saw the smoldering hole in his chest.

Her eyes bugged. Her mouth fell open. A quick glance around the room revealed the others had been cut down just as quickly, just as silently, in precisely the same way their master had been. No scoring on the walls. They hadn't even had the chance to fire. Even the Twi'leks were dead.

Hints of an unfamiliar signature, so deep in the Dark Side it was almost invisible, tricked off the bodies like the blood they laid in.

The murder weapon was a lightsaber.

* * *

The journey from the Outer Rim back to the Core was hours long. Any other time, Callidus may have used the time to curl up in the small cockpit of her run-down fighter and sleep, but her eyes refused to shut, and her mind raced. Up until the starlines of hyperspace finally faded away upon her arrival to Coruscant, she fumbled for a way to face him.

Darth Rabiem would not be pleased.

Callidus broke into the atmosphere and folded in with one of the many traffic lanes bisecting Coruscant's sunset. How would she explain her failure, and how would she suffer for it? He wouldn't kill her; he still needed her if he were to carry out the Grand Plan through to completion. But he could still use her for his ends if she had no eyes, or one less limb, or another bushel of purple scars to add to the vines that already wound across her fair-skinned back.

Her destination appeared on her scanners faster than she would have liked. Like many of the other structures in the industrial Works, it had once been a factory of some sort, but it had long since been abandoned. It crumbled around on itself, its permacrete supports splaying out like broken pieces of coral.

Swallowing hard, Callidus set her ship down, stiffly removed herself from the cockpit, and wound through the winding labyrinth of hallways until, at last, she sensed him. His voice rumbled from nowhere:

"Well?"

"They're dead, Master." She'd answered too hastily. Could he hear her heart pounding?

Rabiem stood at the top of a damaged staircase. He turned his head ever so slightly over his hulking shoulder, not so far as to look at Callidus, but enough to tell her she had his attention.

"You're keeping something from me. Are we not always honest with one another?"

An old wound that he loved to tear at. A pang of heat surged through Callidus's body, but whether it told her to run away or run him through, she wasn't sure. Her breath went ragged as she spoke.

"I didn't kill them, Master. Someone beat me to them."

Callidus clasped shaking hands behind her back, molded her face into an indifferent expression as Rabiem turned, his robes rippling like smoke through the darkness.

"It happened so quickly, Master. Whoever he was, he used a lightsaber and was strong in the Dark Side. I never saw him."

He raised dark eyebrows at her. His eyes glowed from beneath his hood. "Oh?"

Callidus's hand moved to her lightsaber. He hadn't taken it; she could still defend herself if his twitching fingers unleashed the electric hell she expected.

"The good news," Rabiem said, "is that your targets are already dead. Unfortunately, because it was not by your hand, you have failed. And you will pay for that failure."

The blade jumped into her shaking hand. Before she could ignite it, Rabiem held a hand up.

"But not yet."

What?

He clearly found her surprise amusing, because he laughed. Callidus didn't know whether she wanted to hug him or strangle him.

"Do something for me, and I will lessen your punishment. Do it well, and I may even reconsider."

This was new.

"Name it, Master."

"Find the one who robbed you of your kills. Bring me his weapon. And his head, if you don't crush it when you meet."

Callidus nodded, her thoughts reclaiming her. She stared a hole into the floor, rigid.

"What is it, child?"

Callidus didn't look up. "Who could have done this?"

"Clearly it wasn't a Jedi, or else you would have known."

"A recluse, then?"

"Find out. Leave tonight. Probe him before you kill him. We need to know more, as soon as possible."

Now? Her tongue was still rough and swollen from dehydration; her limbs still stiff and sore from the long trek through the desert. Sand still scratched at her skin through her boots, her robes. Her head throbbed from long exposure to the Twin Suns. She wanted to collapse.

"If I try to fight him like this," she protested, "he'll kill me. Let me leave in the morning. Then I could-"

"This _cannot_ wait!" Rabiem towered over her. Lightning crackled at his fingertips. "You have until midnight tomorrow. Prove to me you are not as weak as you have shown me you are! Destroy this fool or be destroyed yourself! Am I clear?"

Ice blew through Callidus's veins. Her face twisted. "Crystal, Master."

She turned and stumbled through the door, anticipating the fire of Rabiem's Force lightning to envelop her at any second until she topped the building and mounted her speeder bike. For a moment she watched the Coruscanti night roll in, blotting the red smog settled in around the towers black. City lights flickered in the distance. The Coco towns, the Crimson Corridor.

But she fixated on the Jedi Temple spires, their finger-shadows clawing across the world to her.

Who could she have been, had she not chosen this?


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

Callidus ground her hands into her speeder's handlebars. No one got anywhere during rush-hour traffic, no matter how urgent their errand. The warm exhaust fumes she'd been sitting in turned her vision on its side. At this point, even moving a centimeter would be a miracle.

Midnight tomorrow. The entire galaxy scoured by midnight _tomorrow_ , for something that Callidus was beginning to think was untraceable. Try as she might, the Force had only led her to dead ends so far. Rabiem just loved torturing her with unaccomplishable tasks, didn't he?

Finally the old skycar in front of her accelerated, and gritting her teeth, Callidus sent the speeder into a dive, rocketing towards the CoCo towns. Toxic neon lights daggered her head with their obnoxious light as she looked for her next exit. The scent of heavy fried food wafted up her nose, making her already churning stomach lurch. Get this done and-

_A small hotel room with walls that were lucky to still be standing. Darkness only partly illuminated by the streetlights and traffic outside. Quiet, except for her heavy breathing-and his. He tore his soft lips away from hers long enough to catch her flushed face in his trembling hands._

" _Hold on, this could really backfire. You sure you wanna keep going?"_

_She peered into his bright blue eyes from under her long eyelashes, reveling in the way the slow smirk she let slide across her face weakened him. His two hearts pounded under her palm._

" _Just don't get attached," she purred._

_Like the twin suns beating down on her, his soaring heart suffocated her through the Force._ _How quickly he pulled her back to him. How brightly he smiled, and his laugh… she'd heard it a thousand times before, but never as light, as relieved, as this. Good._

_He'd fallen for it._

_She had him right where she wanted him_.

* * *

Callidus jumped as a blaring horn blasted the vision away. The Rodian in the speeder behind her shook his fist and bawled in a language she'd heard before but didn't understand. Shaken, she hit the acceleration and zipped downwards.

The Force had kept taking her back to that night, to that exact moment, for days now. She'd never once regretted what she'd done, so why, all of a sudden, had it been coming back to her?

Shoving all distractions aside, Callidus took a deep breath of polluted air, stretching her senses out in front of her. The Crimson Corridor was a merciless hive of violent gangs and criminals. She had to be on her toes. Yanking the speeder to the left, she slowed in an alley and hid the speeder the best she could. Summoning every tendril of the Dark Side that she could, she made sure her hood was still in place and stepped out of the shadows.

She had a task to complete.

The Corridor was low enough that any light was lucky to make its way down from the higher levels during the day, but it was absolutely dismal at night. The buildings looked like they could fall over at any second. Callidus weaved past rusting droids and people of all species in just as much disrepair. Blaster fire cracked in the distance. Coruscanti police-those who had the misfortune of patrolling these streets-lethargically turned in its direction and mounted their speeders.

They wouldn't be watching her… if they'd realized she was there.

A group of human males in bright gang colors smirked and catcalled. She laughed to herself. Let them approach. She would love to tear them apart. She turned down a long alleyway, darker even than the rest of the Corridor, calling on the Dark Side yet again. It washed over her, extended her sight through walls, her hearing past human barriers. Though people pushed past her and swore at her for blocking their paths, she remained in the middle of the street, silent. Waiting.

Waiting…

Her head snapped up; her eyes flew open.

_Finally!_

It was only a trickle, bizarrely masked. She almost didn't notice it, but it was better than nothing. Breaking into a run, Callidus followed the Dark Side's trail between two rickety apartment complexes. Dim windows and damaged door controls told her those who once lived here had abandoned their homes some time ago. The farther she moved forward, the stronger the Dark Side's scent became.

_Midnight tomorrow? I'll have him by midnight tonight._

Then, as quickly as it had come, the trail vanished.

"Kriffing-"

One of the windows stories above shattered. A body landed in front of her with a squelch. Blood splattered on her boots and crawled across the permacrete like spilled engine oil.

The Dark Side returned, not in the small wisps she'd been following, but belching forth from the complex door like smoke from a house fire. She bolted inside.

Callidus forced herself to wait until she'd passed far enough into the building to not be seen to ignite her lightsaber. People screamed outside; the sirens that once howled towards the other side of the Corridor now rushed in this direction. The faltering lights above flickered into uselessness as she wound through the hallways, her saber bathing the walls in red.

She topped the last flight of stairs and froze. A molten hole had been cut through the durasteel door in front of her. Her breath shallow, Callidus lifted her leg high over the edge. The heat seeped through her black robes. Her boots crunched over broken glass. No air moved through the gaping hole in the window beside her. The light fixture overhead sparked and whined as it swung, hit by… whatever had done this.

Her shallow breathing was deafening against the stillness-

 _Crack. Hum_.

Crimson light bled across the room to meet her own. The Dark Side screamed in Callidus's ears as she spun around, lightsaber raised. A single red blade silhouetted its bearer in bloody light. Amber eyes glowed from the darkness.

She hardly had time to register it all before he charged.


	3. Chapter 3

_ Chapter 3 _

He wasn’t a Jedi, that was certain.

Callidus’s arms shuddered with the impact of his blade on hers. Everything was red. Her body screamed. For now she stayed on the defensive, watching his shoulders for clues as to where he’d strike next, begging the Force to give her enough of a warning to block any openings he found.

He was a storm of power. One she wasn’t sure she could hold back. 

Callidus flipped towards the top of an old climate control unit. Any semblance of high ground might give her an advantage, one that, against her far faster, far larger opponent, she was desperate for. She was still in the air when the Force blasted her through a wall. 

Her bones screamed with her. With no wind in her lungs, Callidus sprang to her feet just before he jumped through the hole she’d just made. She raised her saber over her head to keep him from splitting her open. He bored down on her, towered over her, leering. Black tattoos jutted across red skin, intensifying the hate in his eyes. 

She finally landed a good kick to his side and sprang out of the way. Her fingers burned as she unleashed a bolt of Force lightning towards his back. His saber jerked up to meet it; he held it back and lunged through it like it was nothing. Her arm burned; her head spun. Tears burned her eyes. Her footing started to slip.

She couldn’t hold him back like this. 

Callidus two-handed her blade, and he was on her again. 

Again on the defensive, Callidus shuffled backwards and parried. Every one of his blows sent shock waves through her spine. She couldn’t find a single opening. Luckily enough, he couldn’t either. She’d caught onto his rhythm, and his frustration flared through the Dark Side. She smirked. Maybe she had him no—

He landed a solid punch between her eyes. That tiny distraction sent her sprawling into the floor. Her stomach lurched from the pain.

And he was only getting stronger. Was he...

No. 

Callidus threw him into the air and pinned him to a wall with the Force, gritting her teeth with the effort. 

Rabiem had said the true descendants of Bane were extinct. Even the Jedi believed that. 

“Who  _ are _ you?” she thundered. “And what the hell are you up to?”

His teeth flashed as he snarled. Screaming, he ripped his arms through their invisible bonds. Callidus’s body burned with the effort to hold him back, but to no avail. He lunged and tackled her, sending them both crashing through a window and tumbling down into the street. She tried to stand, but the Force tangled around her legs and yanked her to the ground. Her saber fell out of her hand.

He pinned her arms down with his knees, and held the rest of her fast with his bodyweight. His face was inches from hers. His saber singed the hairs on her neck.

“I should be asking the same of  _ you. _ ” 

Callidus squirmed under him, her legs flailing, teeth bared, but to no avail. She tried calling her saber to her, but he drove his knee farther into her forearm. Something popped; she shrieked. Her power was all but spent; his had hardly been tapped into. Her vision darkened. He raised his saber and grinned ferally. 

She was about to die. 

Sirens suddenly wailed; lights flashed. Callidus’s attacker’s eyes widened.

“I will finish you later.” 

He jumped up. As quickly as he had appeared, he was gone. Someone must have found the last body he disposed of and called it in. Groaning, bleeding, coughing, Callidus stood and ducked into the shadows just as the first of the Coruscanti police rounded the corner. 

He didn’t want to be found, just as she didn’t. His rapport with the Dark Side was just as strong as hers, if not stronger,  _ far _ stronger, than hers. 

A Dark Jedi, then. Because the Banites were extinct. Her line—Rabiem’s line—had made sure of it thousands of years ago. 

Or had it? 

Who cared where he came from, or what he did. She had lost him. And she would pay for it. 


End file.
